Former WWE Star Ronda Rousey Credits Paul Heyman For Inspiring New Project

Former WWE and UFC star Ronda Rousey credited Paul Heyman among the inspirations for her new writing venture. Rousey launched the Kickstarter campaign for her maiden graphic novel, "Expecting the Unexpected," with a $20,000 goal on Thursday, which she penned with editing from former Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso. She spoke to "TV Insider" about the new career path, explaining that she had been drawn to writing by Paul Heyman. 

"It was actually Paul Heyman who gave me the idea," she said. "He asked, 'What kind of movies do you want to star in?' I was just sitting there waiting for someone to hand me my dream project and not actually doing anything to make it happen. I mean nobody wrote 'Rocky' for Sylvester Stallone, and where would we all be if he hadn't taken the initiative? I'm not Meryl Streep, but I know there are very specific roles that nobody can do better than me. I was thinking what is that character and story that is so me that nobody can do it better?"

The former WWE star continued to describe when the inspiration truly hit her, "It was actually right after we did the main event of WrestleMania in 2019. Me and my husband were trying to get pregnant. I was thinking, 'Man, it would be really cool to do a John Wick-esque assassin story' ... Five years of secret study and working on it and all this stuff later, I got it to the point where it's out now and brought it to AWA and Axel Alonso ... He absolutely loved the script and wanted to help me make it into a graphic novel." Rousey's novel is described on Kickstarter as the story of an assassin who becomes pregnant and thus begins a "wild mashup of action, adventure, comedy and romance" with the protagonist navigating pregnancy and a bounty on her head. It is available to back now.